


Yesterday, Today, Forever

by adeclanfan



Series: Elizabeth!Verse [37]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 12:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/849763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adeclanfan/pseuds/adeclanfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth is having pre-wedding jitters, so she goes to a park to think and discusses things with a stranger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yesterday, Today, Forever

The water had small whitecaps, but the boats buzzing up and down the busy waterway weren't deterred. Beth eased her pregnant self down on the uncomfortable stone bench. Helen bought a few of them for the park she erected on the large swath of cleared, and newly planted with sod, land where the Old City Sanctuary stood only a few months ago. 

It would make a great park someday once the young trees matured and the grass was all grown in. For now, it made a good place for Beth to come when she needed to get away from the Underground and think without Helen and Declan knowing she was worried about the double wedding ceremony and the huge party with hundreds of guests from around the world. 

Tomorrow was her wedding day, and she should be happy. It was a relief and source of tremendous anxiety at the same time. A week ago, she and Declan married in a private service in London. Helen insisted. And when Beth and Declan resisted, she hit them with the "it's what James would want" argument. It was a dirty, low blow and Helen knew it. 

Before Elizabeth had time to run a brush through her hair or apply some lipgloss, they were standing before the London Sanctuary chaplain with Helen and Declan's second in command as their witnesses and now they were legally, on official paper, man and wife. 

Helen wanted the babies to be born within a legal marriage, which to Elizabeth and Declan modern upbringing wasn't such a big deal, and it surprised them both when Helen went all Victorian on them over the babies. 

Declan had come up with a brilliant way to get back at Helen's pushiness, though. She couldn't wait to see Helen's face when she learned what Elizabeth decided on for a married name, and the last name they would give their children. 

Beth giggled and startled a newcomer to the park. The dark haired woman was on another equally uncomfortable bench about twelve feet further down the park and Elizabeth's sudden giggles had her glancing over at her in confusion. 

"Sorry. Pregnant belly tickles sometimes." Her hand ran over the regulation basketball size bump stretching her largest maternity shirt almost of it's own volition. Someone was waking up, because there was an elbow poking just under her right ribs. Beth rubbed it and just as fast as it appeared, it disappeared back into the watery depths. As long as a little knee didn't encroach her bladder, Beth wasn't going to bitch. She kinda liked being pregnant now that the morning sickness phase had passed. The wiggling did tickle sometimes. 

"Is this park new?" asked the woman. 

"Yeah, the church that was here before was destroyed in a gas pipe explosion a few months ago."

The woman's face went ashen. "Were there people in it?" 

Beth thought about it for a second. She needed to stick with the Helen approved cover story. "I don't know. The article in the paper said the fire was too hot for them to have recovered any bodies, but I was in London when it happened." 

"Oh." 

"Are you from around here?"

A corner of the woman's mouth quirked, "I grew up in Old City. I used to walk past the old buildings on my way to the high school. I loved the place. It looked surreal, like the buildings were stolen from another time and ended up here by accident."

"Yeah. The view from my bedroom window of the water was pretty amazing to wake up to."

The woman blinked at her, "You lived in the Sanctuary?"

Beth realized she may have said too much. "Only for a little while... at the end."

"What was it like? Was the place haunted?"

Elizabeth stood up and stretched her back, which was not the only part of her body that hated that lame concrete bench. Next time, she was bringing a pillow to sit on. "i didn't see any ghosts, just a few very nice people. My girlfriend played wicked practical jokes on me, though. I was stuck in an elevator for half an hour one time in nothing but a tiny bikini and a wet towel. And the place was drafty." 

Beth walked to the edge of the water and the woman joined her. "You have a girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend, fiancee, and after tomorrow..." Beth sighed, "I guess I'm going to have to get used to calling her something else."

"Why?"

"We're getting married."

The woman's eyes widened. "Married? Really?!"

Beth had to back track because this wasn't a civil union state. "We are leaving tonight to go up to Canada, so we can get married tomorrow. Big party, lots of friends and loved ones..."

"Congratulations," the other woman said, and it sounded sincere. "Are you nervous?" 

"Hell yes. This is my place to come and think when I'm nervous. Even if the benches suck." 

They were quiet for a long time just watching boats and barges. 

"Do you want to marry her?"

Beth was a bit surprised by the question. "Well, yes, of course I do." She patted her belly. "My life is just a little complicated right now. And I'm a big ball of raging baby hormones. It's not really fair to inflict that on a wife. And there are going to be two squalling babies around soon..."

"You love her?"

"So much."

"And she loves you?"

Beth knew the answers to both of those questions were big giant affirmatives. "Yeah. I know she does." 

The woman touched Beth's arm very gently, "If she didn't want you and the whole pregnant package, I doubt she would have agreed to a wedding. You're entitled to a few pre-wedding jitters, but I'm sure you'll be just fine."

"Thank you." When their eyes met, there was something familiar about the woman. She couldn't place it, but there was something familiar about stranger's eyes. "Do I know you? Have we met before?"

The dark haired woman gave her a weak smile, "I'm not sure. I've had some issues with my long term memory, but you seem familiar to me, too. This church, when I saw pictures in the newspaper, it... called to me. That sounds stupid, I know."

"No. Actually, it doesn't. But the Sanctuary's owner was someone you'd have a hard time forgetting." Beth laughed at someone forgetting Helen. That was impossible. Helen had a way of wrapping herself around you and seeping through into your brain.

"What was her name?"

Elizabeth hesitated, "Helen. Her name was Helen."

"Did she die in the fire?"

"I don't know. Nobody knows, really," Beth nearly choked on the lies. 

"Oh. That's kinda sad." 

Beth nodded, not trusting herself to speak more lies. It was sad, that was the truth. "I should get going. I'm going to need to drive and find a restroom soon. If this place is going to make it as a park it needs facilities."

The woman's hand brushed her baby bump, but Beth didn't mind. "Do you have baby names picked out?" Abnormals in the new Sanctuary were doing that to her all the time. Especially in Hollow Earth when she went to visit Kate. 

"Well, I thought about naming the little boy James Asher, in memory of two people was lost a few years ago, but my fiancee vetoed Asher right off."

The woman smiled for the very first time. "James is a good name, though."

"Yeah, I like it."

"Good luck with the wedding and the twins."

"Thank you. I hope you have a good visit in Old City."

The woman looked out at the water, and then picked up a chunk of rock and skipped it across the waves, "It doesn't feel like home to me, anymore."

Beth understood. "I think home is where the people we love are."

"I think you're right." 

The woman started walking along the edge of the water and Beth watched her until was to the end of the Sanctuary property line before returning to her car and going back to the Underground to get ready for her big day.


End file.
